Arizona legislature targets 'human-animal hybrids'

The Arizona state Senate on Thursday passed a bill making it illegal for a person to “intentionally or knowingly creating a human-animal hybrid.”

The bill, which passed 16 to 12, would prohibit anyone in the state from “creating or attempting to create an in vitro human embryo by any means other than fertilization of a human egg by a human sperm.”

The measure would also outlaw “transferring or attempting to transfer a human embryo into a nonhuman womb,” “transferring or attempting to transfer a nonhuman embryo into a human womb” and “transporting or receiving for any purpose a human-animal hybrid.”

Louisiana passed a similar law in 2009, the same year Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) introduced the Human-Animal Hybrid Prohibition Act of 2009. The Senate did not take up Brownback proposed law.

A state House panel has also passed the bill, though it has not faced a full vote. GOP Gov. Jan Brewer has not spoken about the bill.

The bill is designed to block potential embryonic research which combines any human and animal cells as well as the “fertilizing a human egg with a nonhuman sperm or a nonhuman egg with human sperm.”

The bill would make it a class 6 felony in the state to knowingly create such a hybrid during research and class 1 misdemeanor to create or a purchase a human-animal embryo otherwise.

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